The government will invest in more social work posts to enable a national rollout of a reformed approach to private law, designed to speed up cases and improve the family courts’ response to abuse.
Justice secretary David Lammy has pledged £17m for 2026-27 to extend the use of so-called “child focused courts” to eight more areas in England, including by boosting social work capacity at Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru.
The model – previously known as the private law pathfinder – is currently operational in 10 of the 43 family court areas, including all of Wales, and the Ministry of Justice intends to roll it out across England over the next three years.
Announcing the plan yesterday, Lammy said the model ensured children’s voices were heard and domestic abuse victims were supported, while significantly reducing the length of proceedings and the number of hearings required per case.
Need for more social workers
However, while under the pre-existing child arrangements programme (CAP) approach, 30% of children are seen by a family court adviser (FCA), this rises to 80% under the child focused courts model, according to Cafcass.
Last year, the family court body calculated that it would need 200 more social workers – an increase of about 12% in its workforce – to manage a national rollout of the scheme.
In a statement to Parliament, Lammy said the £17m “includes a permanent increase in social worker capacity for Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru”, while it would also fund independent domestic violence advisers (IDVAs) to work on cases.
Why private law reform was required
The approach is a response to a 2020 MoJ-commissioned report by an expert panel on private law cases, where parents have separated and are in dispute over their children’s contact and residence arrangements. This found abuse was being systematically minimised, particularly to promote contact, children’ voices were going unheard and there were significant barriers to victims reporting harm.
One of the causes of this, said the panel, was an adversarial court system that retraumatised victims and was not well-suited to determining the truth of allegations of domestic or child sexual abuse.
It called on the MoJ to test an investigative, problem-solving alternative to the CAP, with the MoJ launching the private law pathfinder in response in 2022 in Dorset and North Wales.
About child focused courts
Under the CAP, an FCA carries out an initial safeguarding check of possible risks of harm to the child, drawn from other agencies and a telephone call with the parents who are the parties to the dispute. Practitioners typically do not see the child. This is then summarised in a safeguarding letter to inform the first court hearing.
By contrast, child focused courts involve an information gathering phase, during which the FCA – or in some cases, a council social worker – carries out an in-depth assessment to understand the impact of issues in the case on the children involved, resulting in a child impact report (CIR).
This is generally informed by speaking to the children – as well as the parents – to understand their wishes and feelings. The court then reviews the report and may recommend non-court resolution, request further investigation of issues, make interim orders, such as periods of supervised contact, or hold a decisions hearing and make a final order.
‘Substantially improved experiences for children and families’
Practitioners reported “substantially improved experiences and outcomes for children and families, fewer hearings and reduced time spent in court and better information gathering to inform safety planning”, found a 2025 MoJ-commissioned report on the model’s implementation.
In his statement, Lammy said that evidence showed that the model was working, adding: “[It] model reduces the number of cases returning to court, protecting children and families from further trauma. The length of time families are in proceedings has reduced significantly, with cases being resolved up to seven and a half months faster.
Frontloading social worker resource
The same 2025 MoJ report found that CIR took FCAs 19 hours to complete on average, compared with nine hours for a safeguarding letter in England. But this was offset by time saved on producing further intensive reports, notably section 7 welfare reports, which took about 25 hours on average, the report said.
However, under the pathfinder, FCAs must complete most of their work in the first six to eight weeks of a case, with the CIR expected to be delivered within six weeks. By contrast, the work involved in a CAP case, though potentially greater, is spread over a longer period of time.
In response to Lammy’s announcement, Cafcass welcomed the funding to recruit more social workers on a permanent basis, as the model required “fundamental change to internal arrangements and the associated resourcing”.
‘Children having the loudest voice’
Its chief executive, Jacky Tiotto, hailed the impact of the model, saying: “The advice provided to the court by family court advisers will now be informed at the first and single decision hearing by children whose needs will have been directly assessed.”
“The impact of harm and the risk of future harm to them will be in front a judge in their words and more quickly.”
Tiotto said that FCAs had reported that “children being at the centre of their own proceedings with the loudest voice is what is most likely to transform outcomes for them”, adding: “It is so encouraging to see one system working to this end.”
Social work role change ‘key to model’s success’
Family judges also welcomed the rollout, highlighting the changes in the social work role as critical to the success of the new model.
The president of the family division of the High Court, Sir Andrew McFarlane, said: “The key change is the child impact report produced by Cafcass, Cafcass Cymru or the local authority, which enables the court to gain an early understanding of the impact the dispute is having on the child and focus the parties on how to address that.
“The model benefits families and indeed the whole system with fewer hearings, a better understanding of domestic abuse, and less parents returning to court because the arrangements have broken down.”
Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs, who has been highly critical of how the family justice system responds to abuse, was also supportive.
“This approach has shown that when we put children first, victims feel more supported and retraumatisation is reduced,” she said. “It is important that these outcomes are at the heart of every case concerning domestic abuse.”
Child focused courts rollout plan
Child focused courts are currently operational in all of Wales, Birmingham, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Stoke, West Yorkshire, Wolverhampton and Worcester.
In 2026-27, the model will be rolled out to:
- Northumbria and North Durham;
- Cleveland and South Durham;
- Lancashire;
- Cumbria;
- York and North Yorkshire;
- Cheshire and Merseyside;
- Northamptonshire;
- Coventry and Warwickshire.
Source: Community Care, Mithran Samuel
